Gov. Christie staff attacks MSNBC

1/18/14 5:22 PM EST

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s office assailed MSNBC on Saturday for what it called a “gleeful assault” on the Republican in the wake of the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal, Elizabeth Titus and I report on the homepage:

The attack came after a Democratic New Jersey mayor leveled new claims of political payback on MSNBC’s “Up with Steve Kornacki,” accusing the Christie administration of withholding hurricane relief funds in a dispute over the pace of a redevelopment project in her city.

Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak denied those allegations in an initial statement to the network. Another spokesman for Christie — a prospective 2016 presidential candidate — followed up with a lengthy statement pushing back against both MSNBC and the mayor, Hoboken’s Dawn Zimmer.

“MSNBC is a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Governor Christie and almost gleeful in their efforts attacking him, even taking the unprecedented step of producing and airing a nearly three-minute attack ad against him this week,” said the spokesman, Colin Reed, in a statement, referring to a spot aired by host Lawrence O’Donnell last week.

“The Governor and Mayor Zimmer have had a productive relationship, with Mayor Zimmer even recently saying she’s ‘very glad’ he’s been our Governor,” Reed said. “It’s very clear partisan politics are at play here as Democratic mayors with a political axe to grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on television.”

As Mediaite's Tommy Christopher noted on Friday, MSNBC has devoted a significant amount of time toward covering Christie since the scandal broke, and most of it has not been positive. One MSNBC show that Christie's staff didn't mention in its lengthy response was "Morning Joe," where hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are open about their friendship with and admiration for the governor. Scarborough and Brzezinski said this week they're still critically covering Christie but are giving him "the benefit of the doubt."